Conspiracy
by Tycho
Summary: I was outraged when I heard that TPTB have decided there will be NO J/C RELATIONSHIP!!! But this is not for us lowly viewers to decide, we are irrelevant. But I wrote this any way


Title: Conspiracy

Author: Ben Mason

Contact: tychocelchu@mpx.com.au

Series: VOY

Rating: G

Codes: J/C, P, Voyager Crew

Part: 1/1 NEW

Date originally posted:28/8/99

Summary: I was outraged when I heard that TPTB have decided there will be NO J/C RELATIONSHIP!!! But this is not for us lowly viewers to decide, we are irrelevant. But I wrote this any way

DISCLAIMER: The gods at Paramount own everything, I'm just having a little fun with their toys. I'll put 'em back.......HONEST!!

* * * *

"Security Officer's Log: Supplemental- After hearing a conversation between two ensigns in the corridor, it has come to my attention that Ensign Paris is behind some sort of mischief that involves almost the entire crew, including some of the Command Staff. When I confronted him about the matter he requested that I meet with him at his quarters at the end of his current shift."

Captain Kathryn Janeway was curious. She had just finished reading the security logs that Tuvok had delivered to her when she arrived on the bridge a short time ago. Normally the weekly reports would be routine and almost dull, except when they were being invaded by this or that alien race and even then they would be logically set out without any sort of emotional attachment at all.

All leads on any problems would be followed up on and reported in the next report. This one was unusual and the Captain had an instinctual need to know the facts. She could not stand leaving anything undiscovered if it was within her power to find out and by God she would find out what had lead her Chief of Security to abandon Starfleet Protocol and a longstanding habit.

"Captain to Commander Tuvok"

"Yes, Captain"

"Report to my ready room Mr Tuvok, there is a matter I wish to discuss with you."

* * * *

Tuvok stepped around his console and walked to the doors leading to the Captain's Ready Room.

"Busted....", murmured a bored Tom, seated at the Conn.

"You said something Mr Paris?"

"No, sir", came the innocent reply.

Tuvok set himself and proceeded on through the doors.

Less than five minutes later, a muffled exclamation was heard coming from that direction and very soon a sheepish (if Vulcans can look sheepish) emerged from the Ready Room with a fuming Captain Janeway standing hands on hips behind him.

"The Captain would like you in her Ready Room, Mr Paris"

Tom set the ship on autopilot and attempted to walk into the ready room with his usual grin on his face but Tuvok stopped him.

" 'Busted' was indeed the correct term"

Tom's face fell. He knew what was coming.

* * * *

"Well?" she asked in a tone that he knew too well. This was not going to be easy to get out of.

Trying his best to look puzzled he asked "Well what Captain?"

"Don't start with me Ensign or I will knock you down to crewman, revoke all your Conn privileges and put you in solitary for six months."

"Captain, please, it's not really that serious."

"You call subverting my security officer not serious?? I get a report -half a report - from Tuvok that you are up to something - AGAIN! - and then he refuses to tell me what it is because he would be implicated!"

Tom looked shocked.

"I'm sorry Captain, I thought that when he said he wouldn't tell you I thought he meant he just wouldn't volunteer anything."

"Well maybe I should throw you both in the brig, and every one else involved as well."

"That would be impossible Captain and leave you with a very difficult problem" Tom grinned.

"Explain"

"Well for starters you would need a very large brig to hold all of us. And then of course you would have to find some way to run the ship on your own all the way home."

She stood up, eyes blazing, "Are you saying there is a mutiny against me?"

He was quickly defensive "No! the word mutiny hasn't even been thought of since Tuvok's training sim. But the whole crew is with me on this. 

or perhaps it would be more accurate to say divided with me."

She sat down, brows knitted in puzzlement "You aren't making much sense"

"Shall I start from the beginning?"

She nodded.

"Three years ago we mutinied against Tuvok and rescued you and Chakotay from exile on New Earth...."

* * * *

Tom Paris watched with a speculative grin as the Captain and her 1st Officer strode from the mess hall.

"What's going on Tom, I know that look"

"Nothing Har, just wondering if we shouldn't have waited for a couple of weeks before "rescuing" them."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, I know you're naive at times but even you should be able to see just how close they almost came, I mean, if we'd checked in on them a year from now there would be an addition to the crew manifest."

"Yeah you're right. Pity that can't happen now." Harry smiled wistfully.

"Says who?"

"Starfleet Protocol"

"Chakotay isn't exactly a stickler for protocol you know"

"But the Captain is and as much as she may want otherwise she'll abide by the rules."

"I dunno, Chakotay is pretty persuasive when he wants to be"

"But the Captain is more stubborn than a Klingon about honour. She'll wait until we get back before she makes her move. Nothing the 

Commander could say will change her mind."

"Care to make a wager on that?"

"A week's rations"

"Make it two and you're on"

"Done. You know I never thought you would lose a bet to me Paris but this time you're wrong"

"Wrong? How could I possibly be wrong?"

"Easily!" said a voice in his ear.

"Glad to see you agree with me Be'lanna" said Harry as she sat down, a bowl of Neelix' latest creation in front of her.

"That depends, what are you arguing about."

"That Chakotay will win the Captain over," Tom told her, "Before we get home."

Be'lanna winced as if in pain. "Sorry Harry, I think I must be sick. I am agreeing with Paris on this one."

It was at this point that they realised that the whole mess had gone quiet.

Tom sighed, "We're dead"

The other two looked at him.

"Well there's no chance we can keep this from them now that the entire crew knows."

Harry said "Not necessarily..."

* * * *

"...and it took about a week to get results from everyone. People have changed their minds from time to time and things really got heated when we almost got the slipstream drive working a little while ago and you invited him to dinner. But," and he held up his hand to belay and comments "If you will allow me to use your console I'll show the current standings."

Stunned, Kathryn could only nod and he quickly brought up a file from the databanks, using some fairly advanced decryptions. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well I could hardly have you or Tuvok do a random search of the files and discover this now could I? Not that it matters now. Any way we decided that rather than split the winnings between the winners we would present them to you and the Commander when you finally let it be known who won. Or we got home."

She glanced down the list of names. " They're even"

"Now you understand why I said the crew was divided with me."

"Yes....hold on, how can the Doctor bet rations? He doesn't use them?"

"He picked up on Kes' bet after she left us using hours on the holodeck and despite some notions to the contrary at times has remained adamant to her choice that Chakotay will win out."

She ignored that and asked instead how little Naomi Wildman had found out.

Tom laughed and explained: "The night her mother came back when we went missing and crashed the shuttle? She asked when the two of you were going to get married and although her mother explained that was why she had placed her bet on you, our little Captain's Assistant sought me out the next day and said she wanted to thank you for bringing her mother back safely and placed a bet on Chakotay."

"Little scamp. How she expects to make Captain's Assistant with no loyalty ..."

"Seven was a little trickier to handle."

"Oh?"

"Harry practically blurted it out to her when they were building the astrometrics lab and she demanded why secrets were being kept from you. Harry was able to convince her that it was an experiment and in order for the result to be right there had to be no outside influences from the crew"

"No outside influences?"

"A few of the more boisterous crewmembers entertained notions of locking the two of you in a room for a day or two or transporting you to one place and your clothes another and so on but I stopped that. I figured if that any of this were to happen the jig would be up pretty quickly."

"I thank you for that. But how is Commander Tuvok involved?"

"When he came to my quarters yesterday I explained everything to him and told him that he had two options. He could discipline the entire crew and endure your wrath for doing so as to tell you would be imprudent and embarrass you and the Commander in front of the entire crew."

"Or?"

"Or he could make a bet"

"And what was his reply?" she asked oh so sweetly.

"His exact words were - 'As much as I believe in the applicable protocols and admire Captain Janeway's endurance and intractable nature on 

such matters, she is only human.'"

"Are you telling me that that that ..." she fumed into silence.

Tom winced before speaking again, "There's one more thing"

She raised a hand to her forehead as if feeling a headache coming on "Why am I not surprised."

"I don't know how he found out, but after we left that colony of ex borgs, the Commander, came to me and told me in no uncertain terms that should anything happen to him in the future and he was irretrievably left behind the bet was to be called off and no mention of it to ever be made again. EVER."

She nodded, seeing how one of her irrational acts of guilt could put the ship at risk.

"BUT! Should he die you were to be informed about it and . . . what-side-he-bet-on-no-I-won't-tell-you-can-I-be-dismissed-now?" The last came out in a rush and he cringed, as if expecting a supernova to go off in front of him.

She glared at him, eyes like daggers. "Is that all Ensign?"

He sighed, it was no use he had agreed to say this one thing if discovered.

"Care to place a wager?"

Fin


End file.
